A 17-year-old girl from Birmingham had been bought and sold for sexual purposes in four states since she was 12 before Georgia authorities arrested the man she was traveling with on a child sex trafficking charge, according to news reports.

The Associated Press reported 29-year-old Johnathon Nathaniel Kelly was stopped for speeding along Interstate 20 and the teen, a passenger in the vehicle, told a deputy she was being held against her will for sexual purposes.

"The deputy noticed that the juvenile displayed the indicators of commercial sexual exploitation of children that he had learned about in recent training," Georgia Bureau of Investigation John Bankhead told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an emailed statement. "The juvenile eventually told the deputy that she was being held against her will for sexual purposes."

The teen was placed in the custody of the Division of Family and Children Services and is receiving medical treatment, the AJC reported.